TRIUMPHANT SAVERY BROS. A FORCE IN COUNTRY MUSIC

The Savery Brothers, a six-piece band from Poway that specializes in old-style country-Western music, has won the local finals of the Marlboro Country Music Talent Roundup.

Led by brothers Richard and Robert Savery, the 2-year-old group beat out more than 150 other local country bands for top honors in the contest, which is part of a nationwide talent search sponsored annually by cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris Inc.

Besides a cash prize of $5,000, the Savery Brothers get to open for country heavyweights Alabama, Merle Haggard, and the Judds when the Marlboro Country Music Tour 1987 comes to the San Diego Sports Arena Thursday night.

“Needless to say, it’s a great honor,” Robert Savery said. “Now maybe we’ll get the chance to record some of our own songs, and show even more people that traditional country music is not just a thing of the past.”

For the last two years, the Savery Brothers have been performing Thursday through Saturday nights at the Pomerado Club, a gritty Texas-style honky-tonk that opened as a dance hall in 1921.

But unlike most local country bands, Robert said, the Savery Brothers don’t cater to the “designer cowboy” set by playing bland interpretations of the country Top 40.

Instead, they mix faithful renditions of such old-time country classics as “I Can Hear Kentucky Calling Me” and “Amarillo by Morning” with about a dozen equally traditional-sounding originals.

“We love the twang of the old songs, the country roots music that isn’t over-produced like the stuff you hear on the radio,” Robert said. “When I was a kid growing up in Louisiana, I used to tune in to those old hillbilly stations and listen for hours.

“Even today, the songs of Hank Williams Sr. and George Jones still tear me up inside. They’re just so much more meaningful.”

The Savery Brothers do more than simply revive the twangy country music of the past, however. They enhance it with elements of the blues, rockabilly and the Cajun folk music of the Louisiana bayou country.

“And the fact that we won this contest,” Robert said, “shows me that people are getting hungry for some real gutsy music again.”

Born and raised in Louisiana, Richard and Robert Savery fronted a series of country bands throughout the Southwest, Hawaii and Northern California before moving to San Diego in 1982.

After playing around the county for three years with various local groups, the brothers bought the Pomerado Club in 1985 and formed the Savery Brothers as the house band.

Richard, 35, plays bass and arranges the group’s original tunes. Robert, 33, sings and plays acoustic and 12-string guitar. Rounding out the Savery Brothers’ line-up are Jud Sandison on pedal steel guitar and fiddle, Dallas Pierce on guitar, Lyn Castillo on drums, and Kip Milosevich, who uses only her first name, on vocals.

Today, the Pomerado Club is said by many to be the most popular country-Western nightclub in San Diego County--despite the Savery Brothers’ policy of shunning the latest country hit parade.

“When we started playing here, we were getting a lot of requests for popular songs, but we refused to play them,” Robert said. “We stuck with the music we like, and eventually we were able to win over our audiences.”

Marlboro’s association with country music began in 1983, said Beth Kohl, Philip Morris promotions manager.

“At the time, major corporations were sponsoring rock and jazz tours, but no one was doing anything with country,” Kohl said by phone from New York.

“And since country music tied in very well with our Marlboro Man image, we decided to fill the void and create this program from scratch.”

Since then, Kohl said, the annual Marlboro Country Music Tour has brought Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap, George Strait, Hank Williams Jr. and Dolly Parton to nearly 50 cities throughout the nation in more than 80 concerts.

The related Marlboro Country Music Talent Round-up has given hundreds of unknown country groups, like the Savery Brothers, a shot at national stardom.

This year’s concert tour began March 8 at Lincoln Center in New York, Kohl said, and includes stops at 15 cities before ending May 10 in Chicago.

One dollar from every ticket purchased goes to Second Harvest, a national network of food banks for the needy.

“As we’ve done in the past, we’re featuring multiple headliners and giant video screens so that everyone can see the artists up close,” Kohl said. “We’re also picking one local band from each city to open the show.

“And that’s something that doesn’t happen at most country concerts, which is why we feel this is such a good promotion for us.”